HBO Sets Up Digital Shop in Seattle

Cable TV service Home Box Office is opening its first dedicated software-development office to work on mobile apps and other digital products. But HBO’s new techie outpost isn’t in Silicon Valley but instead in Seattle.

HBO executives Otto Berkes and Drew Angeloff, two former Microsoft employees, are spearheading the new Seattle outpost, which will officially open in coming months and will be devoted to new services including HBO Go, the streaming-video service for people who subscribe to the HBO pay-TV service.

Berkes, senior vice president of digital products for HBO, said the location was a “pragmatic consideration” given his professional network in the Seattle area. He worked for 18 years at Microsoft, headquartered in the Seattle suburb of Redmond, Wash., and he was among the employees who convinced Microsoft to launch the Xbox videogame console in the 1990s. Angeloff, who left Microsoft earlier this year, will run the Seattle office.

In an interview, Berkes also said he is “very comfortable with the type of software talent that is available in the Seattle area.” Bay Area companies such as FacebookSalesforce.comGoogle and Zynga also have opened Seattle-area offices in recent years, joining local giants such as Microsoft and Amazon.com.

Companies say the Seattle area is an alluring hub because there tends to less competition for engineers and other tech talent than there is in Silicon Valley and San Francisco, yet there’s a steady pipeline of potential recruits at Microsoft, Amazon and the University of Washington’s well-regarded computer science program.

(Seattle is such a tech outpost that some techies have adopted the name “nerd bird” for the frequent flights between Seattle and San Francisco, often packed with commuters.)

Berkes said HBO’s Seattle outpost can “continue the ongoing development of Xbox products.” Microsoft’s Xbox and HBO also had a close working relationship. The HBO Go service long has been available for users of the Xbox Live entertainment service. HBO’s “Game of Thrones” show also was among the earliest developers of features for Xbox’s new Smart Glass app, which lets people control action on the Xbox from Microsoft PCs and smartphones. Microsoft representatives had no immediate comment.

HBO’s “Game of Thrones” show also was among the earliest developers of features for Xbox’s new Smart Glass app, which lets people control action on the Xbox from Microsoft PCs and smartphones. A spokesman for Xbox didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.